Lotto-Belisol states only “administrative formalities” stand in the way of ProTeam registration

Belgian team green-lighted on sporting, ethical and financial criteria

Lotto-Belisol has issued a statement to it was just “two administrative formalities” that prevented it from being among the nine teams to have been granted ProTeam registration for 2014 in the first wave. The Belgian team was one of the nine teams to have been asked to appear in front of the International Cycling Union (UCI) Licensing Commission before its first division status can be confirmed.

The team does hold a WorldTour licence for the 2014 season - like the nine teams that have been successfully registered - but has been called by the Licensing Commission, along with Argos-Shimano, “on the grounds of certain irregularities which were still present in their respective file at the time of the drawing up of the UCI assessment.”

Lotto-Belisol confirms that the UCI has “got the green light concerning the sportive, ethical and financial criteria,” and must simply “complete two administrative formalities in order to obtain a WorldTour license for 2014.”

With just six races victories in the WorldTour - with André Greipel taking three stages of the Santos Tour Down Under, one at the Tour de France, and one at the Eneco Tour, and Adam Hansen taking a stage of the Giro d’Italia - Lotto-Belisol finished 18th of the 19 WT teams, only beating Vacansoleil-DCM in the final ranking.

Much of this is surely due to losing Jurgen Van Den Broeck to a career-threatening knee injury at the Tour de France but, had there been more than 18 teams applying for the 18 places, the Belgian team might have had problems with the UCI’s sporting criterion.

Assuming that the “two administrative formalities” are as simple as Lotto-Belisol states, there should be no barrier to the Belgian team taking its place among the elite once more when the UCI announces the rest of the ProTeam registrations after November 25th.